Full Moon Chapter 1

Chapter One

“We’re here!”

Mia Dexter, age 12, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “Already?” she yawned.

Cassie, her best friend, chuckled. Her chestnut hair fell into her eyes as she laughed. “Considering you slept for the whole six hours, I would say, yes.”

Mia smiled back sheepishly.

It was summer vacation. The Lamberts couldn’t afford to go anywhere, so Mia was stuck with two options: to go with Cassie Helmsley and her family to Redwood Park, or to spend the whole summer babysitting her brothers and making sure they didn’t poke spaghetti up their noses again. Of course, she picked the first option.

Mia lugged her huge duffle bag out of the van.

And then she saw-

A small two-story house made of gray-and-white stone stood on the driveway. Ivy crept up to its windows, and white satin curtains blew out into little balconies. A tiny iron-wrought gate surrounded the place.

“Whoa,” Mia managed.

She hoisted her duffle bag onto her shoulders and walked slowly towards the house, feasting her eyes on everything she saw.

The small gate creaked as Mia pushed past it. Cassie stuck a tiny key into the keyhole, and opened the door.

Mia sucked in her breath sharply as she saw the inside.

Paintings hung on the walls. A family sitting out under the stars, and a deer poking its head out from behind massive oaks was next to a set of mounted antlers.

Two intricately carved mahagony shelves leaned on the dark brown carpets. There were piles and stacks and rows of hardcover books in them.

Plump leather armchairs reclined near a flat-screen TV set on the walls. And fire licked and the stone fireplace.

Cassie whistled.

“Dad never told me Gramps had such a cool place,” she whispered to Mia.

Mia nodded.

Mr. Helmsley then walked in, his arms filled with suitcases and bags. “Your mother….says… I need some exercise,” he wheezed to Cassie. “Says….I….should start….by helping her with the bags..” He dropped the pile down on the floor, and they made a loud “thunk”.

“Right.” Mr. Helmsley clapped his hands together. “I’m going outside for some fresh air.”

He stepped out into the backyard.

Cassie giggled. “Last year Dad and Grandpa were preparing something for me. A big surprise, they said. For my thirteenth birthday. Something in the backyard. I can’t wait to see it.”

“Hopefully it’s done,” Mia murmured.

“Yeah,” Cassie said, jumping on a couch and leaving through the books.

Mia joined her. “Oooh.. Fablehaven,” she said, picking up a book. “Your grandpa has good taste.”

“No, these were all my grandmother’s books. She was more of a bookworm, not like an adventurer, like my grandpa.”

“Why do you speak of her in past tense?” Mia wondered.

Cassie’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Mia, Grandma died last year.”

“Oh.”

Mia didn’t know what to say. She was out of words. “I’m …sorry.”

Cassie wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “It’s okay. It’s really strange, though. When we were visiting, Grandma went outside for her daily walk. She never came back. About a few weeks later, the police-men found her body in the woods.”

Mia shivered.

“It’s a mystery,” Cassie murmured. “How she died.”

She suddenly turned to Mia, her blue eyes were filled with sudden determination. “I’m going to find out, though,” she announced. “About her death.”

“I’ll help,” Mia decided. “We’ll do it together.”

Cassie smiled. “Thanks.”

And without knowing it, the two girls had already started on the road to solving the mystery.